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According to the research, 35 per cent of computers run at least one illegal
program. Computer users in China and Russia are the worst offenders with over 80
per cent of computers running pirated software.

Security firm
Sophos
noted that pirated software can leave business networks open to attack as
cyber-criminals are provided with an additional route to infection.

"Putting aside the obvious legal issues, piracy can have a real impact on a
company in terms of security," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant
at Sophos.

"It is not enough to make sure that all PCs are running legitimate copies of
Word; businesses must also control what programs their employees are
downloading, installing and running."

Patching against software vulnerabilities is key to any good IT security
policy, according to Cluley, but becomes near impossible with pirated software.

"Pirated software downloaded from dodgy websites or bought from a man in an
alley will not come with technical support, and may even be virus infected," he
said.

Cluley added that running pirated software on corporate networks can also
have severe repercussions on the network infrastructure, hogging valuable
bandwidth and network resources.

"Businesses simply cannot afford to ignore piracy," he said. "The corporate
network is the backbone of any company and if you allow users to run anything
they like on it, whether illegal or not, you should not be surprised when it
breaks."